Biography
The son of an Austrian father and Swedish mother, Boston-born actor Barry Newman received a liberal education ranging from Latin to Hebrew to music. Graduating from Brandeis University with an anthropology degree, Newman decided upon becoming an actor when he chanced to wander into a class conducted by Actors Studio mentor
Lee Strasberg. He was busy if not famously so on stage and in Manhattan-based TV (notably the daytime drama Edge of Night). His first film was the gangster potboiler
Pretty Boy Floyd (1960), his breakthrough picture was
The Lawyer (1969). Newman made an excellent impression in the role of a cocky gonzo attorney, a character reprised in the 1974 TV movie
Night Games. This in turn led to the TV series
Petrocelli, starring Newman as a compassionate big-city lawyer living and working in Tucson, Arizona. After
Petrocelli was cancelled in 1974, Barry Newman showed up on stage, in several made-for-TV movies, and in the
Aaron Spelling "jiggle" series
Nightingales (1989). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide